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Our take: White roses and thorns

York Daily Record editorial

Updated:
01/02/2014 12:24:19 PM EST

ROSES >> To Judge Penny Blackwell for her 21 years of public service in the York County courts. Our county's second female judge is retiring from the bench this month. She played a crucial role in creating innovative mediation efforts in child custody cases, and she has presided over the county's successful treatment courts.

ROSES >> To York City Police Officer Eddie Hernandez for his 27 years of public service. He retired recently but will be working with the city school district's security force.

ROSES >> To Don Bair and Julie Heindel for adopting a mistreated Yorkie.

ROSES >> To Sprint for sponsoring the New Year's Eve events in downtown York on Tuesday evening. Roses also to those who organized and carried out the successful event.

ROSES >> To York city and Central Market officials for throwing a special New Year's Eve party for kids at the market -- with a balloon drop at the kid-friendly hour of 8 p.m.

ROSES >> To Red Lion borough officials and land owner David Lutz for coming to terms on a land purchase that will allow the Red Lion Mile hiking and biking trail to move forward.

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ROSES >> To Sam Kiomene for pursuing his dream of creating a successful jewelry company so he can raise money to return to his native Liberia and help improve lives there.

ROSES >> To Steve Forbes for his cool proposal to Mary Kate McGowan: At the Christmas Magic display at Rock Ridge park. She said yes.

ROSES >> To the Glen Rock Carolers for their planned daylong Glen Rock Festival of Village Carols set for Jan. 11 at Zion Lutheran Church.

ROSES >> To U.S. Army Maj. Matthew Posner, who has connections to our community through York Hospital, for earning the prestigious Bronze Star.

ROSES >> To news that Gov. Corbett has given up (for now) on privatizing the state lottery. The move was lauded by Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, who has questioned the effort and said the current system is doing a decent job. Former Revenue Secretary Tom Wolf, now running for governor, has also questioned privatization of a lottery system he once oversaw. Some privatization of state services makes sense (the state store system, for instance), but not all state assets should be siphoned off to the private sector. This effort to privatize the lottery has wasted millions of state dollars.

ROSES >> To Summer Britcher of Glen Rock for making the U.S. Olympic luge team. She'll compete for gold Feb. 10 and 11 in Sochi. York County is rooting for her!

THORNS >> To Gov. Tom Corbett for snubbing York's bid to be part of the City Revitalization and Improvement Zone program, which York officials said could have helped spur economic development. Lancaster and Bethlehem were the two cities chosen to participate in the program initially, but York still has a chance to be included in a couple of years.

ROSES >> To the York County Junior and Senior Honors Choirs for their excellent holiday concert at Central York High School Monday.

THORNS >> To Dr. Claude Fanelli Jr. for selling prescriptions for oxycodone, reportedly to fund a gambling addiction his attorney said was fueled by medication he was taking for Parkinson's disease. The doctor avoided prison time, instead getting house arrest, probation and fines.

THORNS >> To the Northeastern School District for deciding to use a "swap" -- a financial tool that former state Auditor General Jack Wagner has warned can be very risky -- to refinance district debt. Let's hope enough safeguards are built into this deal to protect taxpayers from losses other districts have suffered using similar instruments.

ROSES >> To Spring Garden Township native Nick Ryan for pioneering and helping to popularize extreme pogo as an alternative sport. He's now the CEO of Xpogo.

ROSES >> To the York Benevolent Association for its 150 years of service to our community.